Third prison term for conscientious objector
Shir Regev:
I believe it is my personal duty to
refuse and defect from an army whose main purpose is to serve as an
occupation police for maintaining “Israeli order” and imposing it on
defenseless Palestinians who are denied citizenship.

Israeli CO
Diane Kogan in prison.
Conscientious objector Diane Kogan was
sentenced to 25 days in military prison. This is her second prison term
and the sixth time she is tried and sentenced for her refusal to enlist.16 June 2010

Ken O’Keefe Former US Marine, Gulf War veteran, and now survivor
of the Mavi Marmara massacre, has issued a remarkable and
searing statement from Istanbul. 6
June 2010

Israeli
refuseniks speak out, London
Jews for Justice for Palestinians invite you to meet OR BEN DAVID and
YUVAL AURON. Two courageous Shministim, who, as school leavers, refused
to be drafted into the Israeli army. Sunday, May 9th St Martins
Community Centre, 43 Carol Street, London NW1 0HT
May 7 2010

Shir Regev sentenced to a 2nd termI believe it is my personal duty to refuse and defect
from an army whose main purpose is to serve as an occupation police for
maintaining "Israeli order" and imposing it on defenseless Palestinians
26 March 2010

Saturday
12/12, Prison 6 (near Atlit), at 11:00 : Support Vigil for Idan Barir,
member of Combatants for Peace,
who has been jailed (14 days) for refusing to participate in the
occupation. Transportation from JLM and TLV: Contact
aviy57@gmail.com or
052-4460101

The latest
ShministimLetter: Can a government that controls the
lives of millions of people who did not take part in elections be called
a “democracy”? Can military rule of a civilian population be considered
anything other than a dictatorship?
Oct 2009

THE SHMINISTIM TOURCode Pink and
Jewish Voice for Peace are excited to be organizing a nationwide tour
through the United States this Fall, in which these two women recount
why they refused, what they have experienced as a result, and what it
all means. 25
September 2009

Israeli soldiers
reveal the brutal
truth:They detail the killing of
at least two civilians, the vandalism, looting and wholesale destruction
of Palestinian houses, the use of deadly white phosphorus, bellicose
religious advice from army rabbis and what another battalion commander
described to his troops as "insane firepower with artillery and air
force". 15
July 2009

Police Investigation Against Yesh Gvul
The alleged grounds for the investigation is
the suspicion that the group and its members engage in "incitement to
evade military service", do so consistently and "promise financial
incentives" to that end. June 24, 2009

Gaza war crime
claims gather pace as more
troops speak out. Fresh allegations have come to light that gung-ho
leadership inculcated a culture of disregard for Palestinian casualties.22 March 2009

Israeli Soldiers Expose Atrocities in GazaTestimony
from Israeli soldiers, who took part in the recent war in Gaza, has
forced Israel to directly confront the serious charge that permissive
rules of engagement allowed for the killing of Palestinian civilians and
widespread destruction of Palestinian property. 20 March
2009

Dead Palestinian babies and bombed mosques - IDF fashion 2009.
The
office at the Adiv fabric-printing shop in south Tel Aviv handles a
constant stream of customers, many of them soldiers in uniform, who come
to order custom clothing featuring their unit's insignia, usually
accompanied by a slogan and drawing of their choosing. 20 March 2009

Soldiers’ Accounts of Gaza Killings Raise Furor in Israel.
In the two months since
Israel ended its military assault on
Gaza,
Palestinians and international rights groups have accused
it of excessive force and wanton killing in that operation, but the
Israeli military has said it followed high ethical standards and took
great care to avoid civilian casualties.20 March 2009

The writing on the wallIn Israel, research institutes count every
abusive slogan scrawled on Jewish cemeteries abroad and document every
article, monitoring upsurges in anti-Semitism, whilst everyday racism -
both institutionalized and popular, declarative and practical - against
the Arabs of Israel and the Palestinians in the West Bank are cautiously
and frugally covered. 17 March 2009

Nurit Peled whose daughter was killed in a
suicide bombing, speaking at the Russell Tribunal on
Palestine: "I
dedicate my words to the heroes of Gaza . .". 4 March 2009

Spanish court to continue the investigation of the Shechade case.
The Israeli government refuses
to conduct an independent investigation of its acts, some of which are
alleged war crimes. Therefore, Israeli officers, soldiers and
politicians may have to answer to foreign tribunals in the future, for
these acts.28
February 2009

Peace activist
Sahar Vardi, 18, has served three prison sentences for her
refusal to be conscripted into Israel's military service. She is one of
the Shministim – Israeli teenagers who oppose serving in the army
because it enforces Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. 18 Feb 2009

Israeli CO Yuval Oron-Ofir.Yuval Oron-Ofir, a signatory of the 2008
high school seniors refusal letter, was sentenced on Monday, 24 Nov., to
14 days in military prison for his refusal to serve in the Israeli
military.
29 November 2008

Prison Party!Show your support for five jailed Israeli refuseniks. 10 November 2008

COs Sahar Vardi and Raz Bar-David. Raz Bar-David Varon, a signatory
of the 2008 high school seniors refusal letter, Reported yesterday (3
Nov.) at the Induction Base, declared her refusal to serve in the
Israeli military and was sentenced to 21 days in military prison.4
November 2008

Israel
-- A State "War" on Youth
/
Web site for IDF draft dodgers
faces criminal probe.
Ratcheting up their campaign
against so-called "shirkers", Israeli authorities have declared a new
front in their "war" – as it is termed by the news item below – on
Israeli youth.
16 September 2008

An Israeli refusenik. Eighteen-year-old Sahar Vardi is
currently in an Israeli military prison. She is being punished for the
crime of refusing to be conscripted into the Israeli military.
3 September 2008

ISRAEL: Conscientious objectors Avichai Vaknin and Sahar VardiAfter conscientious objector
Udi Nir went to military prison for 21 days on 21 August 2008, two
more conscientious objectors are now in prison. Avichai Vaknin
(ISR14948), a 18 years old pacifist conscientious objector from Yehud,
near Tel Aviv, has been sentenced to 21 days in prison on the same day
as Udi Nir, and received the same sentence of 21 days. 26 August 2008

The Shministim Letter 2008: "We, high-school graduate teens, declare
that we shall work against the Israeli occupation and oppression policy
in the occupied territories and the territories of Israel. Therefore we
will refuse to take part of these actions, which are being done under
our name as part of the IDF." August 2008

Rebecca Vilkomerson,
today participated in the gaza convoy against the siege, and gave a
quick report back, especially since so many worked so hard to support
it.
February 2008

IDF: 50% of Israeli teens do not enlistCol.
Tziki Sela, head of the army's Department of Planning and Manpower
Administration estimated that there are approximately 7,000 draft
dodgers every year. January 2008

Ben Kogan,
a pacifist conscientious objector, was sentenced to 21 days for
refusing to serve in the Israeli army, now in solitary in military
prison for refusing to wear uniform & refusing to refer to the
prison commanders by their ranks. January 2008

Campaign
to investigate the killing of civilians as a result of the
Schechade bombing. July 2007

Speech by Nurit Peled-Elhanan
at the Tel Aviv Demonstration Commemorating 40 Years of the
Occupation. "Today
racism rules in the Jewish state, tramples people’s dignity underfoot
and deprives them of liberty, condemns all of us to lives of hell."June 2007

Demonstration is support of Hadas Amit:"I refuse to enlist in the IDF, because the "D" in "IDF"
symbolizes death for me. Who has the right to decide for me that I'm not
a peace supporter, and has forced me into a corner? I must either lie or
pay the price for my principles. In the name of morality, justice and
the love of man I will sit in jail."Feb
2007

Fighting in Lebanonproduces first conscientious objector. The Lebanon 2006 war has
produced its first conscientious objector - Staff Sergeant Itzik
Shabbat. 19 July 2006

Israel
66% reservists did not go back to the army in 2001
Refuseniks in other armies are not treated so well, he says. "When
I decided to refuse, none of my family, neighbours, or friends
denounced me. Their tone varied between respect for my views and
outright support. An officer in my battalion who is himself a
settler told me, 'I respect you, but keep loving the Jews and
the nation of Israel.' I was surprised but very happy."
06 April 2006

Vanunu Interview: 'Atomic bomb protects apartheid policy’In 1986, Mordechai Vanunu, an
engineer at Israel’s Dimona nuclear centre, revealed to the
London
Sunday Times the existence of the secret Israeli nuclear
weapons program. Although he is still banned from contacting
reporters, last October Vanunu answered Swiss journalist Silvia
Cattori's questions in an exclusive interview for Voltaire
Network. 1
March 2006

Vanunu arrested
What happened last Thursday November 11th 2004
"Dear friends. First the timing, Israel spies chose the day of
Arafat's death, they were ready with this plan to arrest me
since Oct' 19th. I saw the paper signed by the same Jewish
religious judge from Oct' 19th. So they knew Arafat was going to
die, and they decided to arrest me on that day", writes
Mordechai Vanunu
November
2004

The Five: Free from the Army!This is a victory for all women and men
of good conscience who refuse to participate in oppression and
occupation. The calm bravery of these five young men reminds us
that we all have the right to refuse to be part of the
occupation and suggests that we might well consider that this
right is really a duty.
September
2004

The Five released On 15 September 2004The Five will be released from prison on September 15th. We
don't know if they are going to be released from the army then,
or whether the army authorities are still planning to try and
recruit them yet again.
August 2004

Yitzhak Laor
writes about an exhibition of soldiers' photographs in Tel Aviv
and introduces some of the soldiers' memories of their military
service22 July 2004

Breaking the Silence: The Next Phase
Last week, the exhibition of photographs/testimonies "Breaking
the Silence" Fighters Tell about Hebron closed, after being on
display during June at the Gallery of Geographic Photography in
Yad Eliahu, Tel AvivJuly 2004

Refuseniks update: Military parole committee
The military parole committee convened yesterday at the military
court in Jaffa to discuss the possibility of a parole to the
five conscientious objectors refusing to enlist in an army of
occupation.7 July 2004

Anger at restrictions on VanunuProtests were lodged yesterday
against the restrictions that are to be imposed on the Israeli
nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who is due to be
released from prison next week.
17 April 2004

Carrying the Refuser Message to the Mainstream
The
Refuser Solidarity Network conference in
March 2004 in Chicago,
brought together Israeli refuseniks representing various
organizations (Yesh Gvul, Shministim, Parents Forum, New
Profile, and Courage to Refuse) with the Refuser Solidarity
Network (RSN) to discuss the next steps forward.
22 March 2004

Doing Things The Hard Way - Five Israeli Military Objectors Convicted
"The worse the occupation becomes, the more people will refuse . . . A
country which oppresses three andhalf million
people and denies them the most basic human rights is a country which is
bound also to oppress its own citizens. No wonder that this country is
sending us to prison. No wonder that it istrampling
the poor and the disadvantaged." Adam Maor.
16 December 2003

`I punched an Arab in the face'
There are many families in which, in a certain sense, there are
already two generations of criminals. The father went through it and now
the son is going through it.
20 November 2003

Jaffa military court
"We strongly call upon the military authorities and the minister
of defence to review the facts of the case and to reconvene the
Conscience Committee to discuss once again the issue of whether or not
Yoni Ben Artzi should
get an exemption from military service."
13
November 2003

Israel: the trial of the five
Both Matar and Kaminer, replying to the prosecutor's questions
regarding the duty to obey the law in a democratic state, said that
Israel is not fully democratic.
18 September 2003

Israeli refuser writes to Stephen Funk"We live half a world from each other, we
have led quite different lives, and yet we are both in the same
situation: conscientious objectors to imperial war and occupation"
12 August 2003

Appeal for action from New Profile
"I, Noam Bahat, 'a soldier in the army of non-violence', hereby
declare
"On Thursday, 16 January, I began a hunger strike, protesting the
occupation of the Palestinian people, the human rights violations in the
Palestinian Occupied Territories, the detention of conscientious
objectors in military prison, our recurrent sentences and the turning of
the State of Israel into a fascist state before our eyes.23 December
2003

Refuseniks before the Court Marshal
"Already
for years I know that i am not going to join the army. I know it with as
much certainty as I know that I will never kick a homeless person lying
on the sidewalk, never rape a woman, and when I will have a child -
never abandon it.3 July
2003

A Refusenik Scientist Against Science NeutralityNo, science of the American variety has no recourse. I,
personally, cannot see myself anymore sharing a common human community
with American science. Unfortunately, I also belong to a culture of a
similar spiritual deviation (Israel), and which seems to be equally
incorrigible.
9 April 2003

Statement of refusenik Shimri Tzameret, Jaffa Military Court
Already for years I know that I am not going to join the army. I
know it with as much certainty as I know that I will never kick a
homeless person lying on the sidewalk, never rape a woman, and when I
will have a child - never abandon it.
24 June 2003

Refuseniks' claim: IDF is releasing us to pretend we don't exist
The Israel Defense Forces has recently begun to release soldiers
from reserve duty when they refuse to serve in the territories,
activists in the Courage to Refuse movement claim. This new policy, the
group claims, is aimed at creating the false impression that the refusal
movement has waned.
3 July 2003

"We Refuse The Occupation"
From the podium a call was made of solidarity with the 3 UK soldiers
and 1 US marine, imprisoned for their refusal to join the War Against
Iraq.
11 April 2003

'I
realised the stupidity of it'His uncle is the hawkish former prime
minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu. But Jonathan Ben-Artzi is a
conscientious objector who has already spent months in prison for
refusing conscription - and today faces a full court martial.
11 March 2003

The Bereaved Parents for PeaceBy Nurit Peled-Elhanan "We have
been made to pay the highest price for a war that should have ended
long ago, by letting careless, not to say ruthless and cynical
politicians use the lives of our children as chips in their deadly
games, and turn our children's blood into the cheapest merchandise
in the political market." January
03, 2003

Women's Draft Resistance in Israel
Israel is the only country in the world that practices conscription
for women. It is thus also the only country in the world where women's
draft resistance exists. The movement of women draft resisters in Israel
is constantly on the rise.
Undated

Women’s resistance must be visible -
a letter from a draft resister
A letter from Shani Werner, a draft resister who has already
received her exemption from the Israeli army on grounds of conscience.
Shani is one of the initiators and organizers of the high school seniors
group that wrote two open letters to the Prime Minister declaring
refusal to serve in the army.
31 December 2002

Statement of a conscientious objector to the service in Israeli army
I fail to understand how the repression of the Palestinian
resistance to Israel by means of state terror - more cruel and of wider
scale even than the counter terror which it provokes - serves the
society that I am part of. How does the activity of the state,
implemented through the army, benefit me and those I care for?
24 December 2001

Declaration of refusal of service in the occupied territories by 100
Israeli Reservists
We, combat officers and soldiers […] have served the State of Israel
for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal
lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and
were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the
security of our country, and […] had the sole purpose of perpetuating
our control over the Palestinian people.
Undated

Leaflet to soldiers by Yesh Guvl (There is a limit)
Wouldn't it be preferable to use the money to reinforce our social
structures ? Wouldn't it be preferable to channel the funds to our
crumbling health and education systems? Is it just to neglect the aged,
the handicapped and the unemployed in favour of further settlements?
Undated

Reservists balk at occupation
Since the start of the current Palestinian uprising in September
2000, at least 400 Israelis, mostly reservists, have refused service in
the Israeli-occupied territories, and in most cases they were quietly
released from duty, according to a resisters' group, Yesh Gvul, which
means, There is a Limit.
2 February 2002

Israel jails 600 reserve soldiers in crackdown on draft dodging
So they are not willing to pay the price and risk their lives for
something they don't believe in. This is a big problem for the army
because it will affect their operations. The army needs to understand
that fewer and fewer people are willing to do their dirty work in the
territories.
31 January 2002

Personal testimony of an Israeli refusenik
Without thinking, I turned into the perfect occupation enforcer. I
settled accounts with "upstarts" who didn't show enough respect. I tore
up the personal documents of men my father's age. I hit, harassed,
served as a bad example - all in the city of Kalkilia, barely three
miles from grandma and grandpa's home-sweet-home. No. I was no
"aberration." I was exactly the norm.6 February
2002

To the courageous soldiers who say "NO!"
A friend of mine served in the Israeli Defence Force. He realized
the insanity of it when his best friend was blown to pieces right next
to him. He quit the army and quit the country. But he also told me about
the fascination to hold a gun, the surge of power that one feels when
you "can take somebody down from a 100 meters distance as a sniper".
This is the disease of a male society. We get trained and taught what it
means to be a man right from the beginning. We hardly get taught what it
means to be a human.
2 April 2002

A Letter from an IDF soldier to his mom
Good morning mom. Don't be ashamed for my behavior. I'm
feeling very sick, I have the impression I'm becoming like a beast. I
can't believe what I'm doing. I obey orders so I don't look like a sissy
in front of my friends. You could never understand what it means
to enter a house with ten children inside, woman and old people,
pointing the rifle on them, shouting, "freeze!" in Arabic. Only a
few months ago I was going to school,
a nice sweet boy, now I'm an assassin. 4 April 2002

Prisons are filling up with conscientious objectors
In a time in Israel when poverty is at its highest level since the
1950s, many career soldiers, among them pilots and intelligence officers
have chosen jail and unemployment rather than carrying out orders that
they feel are immoral. 21 February
2003

Dear friends of Israeli refusers:
"I hereby call upon all young people facing conscription or already
conscripted: use your power of judgment. Do you intend to cooperate with
the horrifying regime of [Israeli Prime Minister] Sharon, as the
instrument of execution? And if you do intend to enlist, do not forget
for a single moment that the army takes away from you, at the moment of
mobilization, your power of judgment. Consequently, you must consider in
advance what are the lines you shall never be willing to cross, because
once you are inside, everything gets blurred up.
Undated

Militarism and racism have reached a fascist levelThe oppression known by
the peoples of this in the age of the Empires, the torment of the slaves
and the Indians in North America, the Algerian War of Independence and
apartheid in South Africa - all these precedents have made my refusal
inevitable.
23 October 2002

Yom Kippur Plea for Forgiveness
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), is a very important Jewish religious
festival, when Jewish people make atonement and seek absolution from God
for the sins of the past year.
Yesh Gvul (There is a limit), an organization opposed to the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian lands, published their version of a Yom Kippur
prayer during the first Palestinian Intifada.
1988